Today is the birthday (1932) of Abebe Bikila (አበበ ቢቂላ) double Olympic marathon champion from Ethiopia, most famous for winning a marathon gold medal in the 1960 Summer Olympics while running barefoot, and from that point on a great hero of mine.

Abebe Bikila was born in the North Showa region of Ethiopia, in a village called Jato. In his youth, he was noted as a good swimmer, Guna player (a type of hockey played during Christmas), and a skillful horse rider. At the age of 17 he moved to the capital city, Addis Ababa, where he began a military carrier in the imperial bodyguard regiment. To keep the troops physically fit, the army unit had regular sport activities. This program gave him a chance to develop his natural talent for sport. Later on as a symbol of unity the armed forces established a yearly sport competition event, which was designed to reunite the three forces, army, air force and navy in shared activities. In his first Annual National Army Athletic competition he finished a marathon in 2 hours 39 minutes and 50 seconds. That opened a new chapter in his life. He was noted by the Swedish coach Onni Niskanen who was then a director of athletics under the ministry of education and later an official of the Red Cross.

With the assistance of Niskanen, Bikila began intensive training for the 1960 Rome Olympics. Abebe Wakijera was the only other Ethiopian athlete who qualified to go to Rome besides Bikila. Just days before the competition Bikila developed a blister on his foot due to running with new shoes that did not fit properly (Adidas was low on stock when they got to him). Some journalists had claimed that he used to train barefoot, but this was not true. He decided to run barefoot only as a result of the inconvenience of the blister. Sergei Popov of Russia, who was the world record holder, Abdesselem Rhadi of Morocco, who won an international marathon that same year and another notable, Barry Maggee, of New Zealand were among the participants and the favorites to win the race. Bikila was completely unknown from a country with little Olympic presence.

The race began at Campidoglio Square. Abebe kept running close but was not in the leader pack until they approached the 10 kilometer mark. By the 15 kilometer point, he had gained momentum and joined the leaders. By then the competition came down to four people : Rhadi and Arthur Kelly of Britain in the lead, shadowed by the Belgian Van den Dreissche and Abebe Bikila. At the 20 kilometer mark Bikila and Rahdi were running side by side leaving everybody behind them. They passed the 35 kilometer mark running neck and neck. With 1 kilometer left, Bikila drew away. The distance between the two front runners gradually grew. Running strongly Bikila finished the race with a new record time of 2:15:16.25 improving the previous record, set at Helsinki in 1952, by about 8 minutes. Bikila became the first sub-Saharan African to win an Olympic gold, ushering in an era of dominance by east African distance runners. I remember it vividly, including being amazed at watching him do exercises just off the track by the finish line at the end of the race as if he were fresh as a daisy.

When Niskanen was later asked by a reporter if he was surprised by Abebe’s victory, he replied that he was not and he added that “others do not know Abebe as I do. He has no fear for his rivals. He has strong willpower and dedication. There is none like Abebe I have ever seen. Abebe was made by Abebe, not by me or anyone.”

On 13 December 1960, while Emperor Haile Selassie was on a state visit to Brazil, his Imperial Guard forces, led by General Mengitsu Neway, staged an unsuccessful coup, briefly proclaiming Selassie’s eldest son Asfa Wossen as Emperor. Fighting took place in the heart of Addis Ababa, shells detonated inside the Jubilee Palace, and many of those closest to the Emperor were killed. Bikila took no part in the uprising, but was briefly held in detention after the coup. Most of the surviving Guards were disbanded and dispersed. One newspaper remarked, “Abebe owes his life to his gold medal.”

In 1961, Bikila ran marathons in Greece, Japan, and Czechoslovakia, all of which he won. He entered the 1963 Boston Marathon and finished in just 5th place—the only time in his career that he finished a marathon and did not win. He did not compete again until the Addis Ababa marathon in 1964 which he won in 2:23:14.

40 days prior to the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, during a training run near Addis Ababa, Bikila started to feel pain. Unaware of the cause of the pain, he attempted to overcome it but collapsed. He was taken to the hospital where he was diagnosed with acute appendicitis. He was operated on and shortly thereafter he started jogging in the hospital courtyard at night.

The Tokyo marathon (which, like the Rome marathon, I still remember vividly), started with 68 world class athletes. Immediately Ron Clark of Australia and Jim Hogan of Ireland took the lead. Bikila stayed close. At the 20 kilometer mark he took the lead and slowly opened a gap between himself and the other frontrunners. He won the race with a record time of 2:12:11.2 improving his own record time in Rome. After finishing the race, as in Rome, he went through a series of vigorous exercises as if he were getting ready to start another marathon. In a news conference after the event Abebe predicted that he would win in the 1968 Olympic in Mexico City.

While training before the 1967 Zarauz competition Bikila hurt his leg. He competed in the race but failed to finish the course. He was sent to Germany for the necessary treatment by the emperor. But the discomfort in his leg recurred during training. In Mexico City Bikila was confident of winning a third gold medal in part because the altitude was similar to that of Addis Ababa, and would affect other runners more than he. He started in the leading pack running ahead most of the way. But his leg injury flared up. As the pain became unbearable, he decided to leave the competition. It was reported that he encouraged Mamo Wolde who was in the race by saying, “I cannot continue running because I am seriously ill. The responsibility of winning a gold medal for Ethiopia is on your shoulders.” At the 15 kilometer mark Bikila dropped out of the race. Wolde took the lead, running alone with little competition from the rest of the athletes, and finished the race in first place in 2:20:26.4.

In 1969 while traveling from his home town, Abebe had a tragic car accident. Because he could not be treated effectively at the local medical facility, he was sent to the Stoke Mandeville hospital in England. He was originally paraplegic but after 8 months of treatment he recovered use of his upper body. As soon as he was able he began physical training to enhance his upper body strength. Two years later, in 1971, he entered a paraplegic sport competition in England in archery, finishing seventh out of one hundred. In that same year he participated in the International Paraplegic Games in Norway. He competed in a dog sled race and finished first.

In 1972, Bikila was invited to the Munich Olympic Games as a special guest. He was received with a standing ovation as he entered the stadium in a wheelchair. In honor of his fortieth birthday a gala celebration was held at the Olympic village in the presence of athletes and officials of the organization. Bikila died In 1973 October 20 at the age of 41. An estimated 75,000 mourners attended the state funeral, including members of royal families, and ambassadors, as well as local and international reporters.

Ethiopian cuisine characteristically consists of very spicy vegetable and meat dishes, usually in the form of wat (also w’et or wot), a thick stew served on top of injera, a large sourdough flatbread, which is about 20 inches (50 cm) in diameter, made from fermented teff flour. Teff is a grain that makes a flour similar to quinoa flour. Teff (Eragrostis tef) was first domesticated in Ethiopia around 4000 BCE. It is very versatile and can be used in place of wheat flour to thicken soups, stews, gravies, puddings. It is practically gluten free and so cannot be used to make leavened bread. What gluten there is in teff does not contain the a-gliadin-fraction that causes allergic reactions, and has a high concentration of different nutrients: a very high calcium content, and significant levels of the minerals phosphorus, magnesium, aluminum, iron, copper, zinc, boron and barium, and thiamin. Teff is high in protein. It is considered to have an excellent amino acid composition, including all 8 essential amino acids for humans, and is higher in lysine than wheat or barley. It can be fermented naturally to make an alcoholic drink similar to Peruvian chicha. Typically in Ethiopia stews are served on top of injera. Diners break off pieces and scoop up the stew with it, right hand only.

Injera

Ethiopian and Eritrean immigrants have modified their recipes after moving to the United States or Europe, depending on what grains are available to them. The injera you find in many Ethiopian restaurants in the United States includes both teff and wheat flours. Most injera made in Ethiopia and Eritrea, on the other hand, is made solely with teff. Depending on where you live, teff flour can be difficult to come by. Try a well-stocked health food store or go online. I give a half-and-half flour and teff recipe here, which I find works well, but you can experiment with proportions.

Put the teff flour in the bottom of a mixing bowl, and sift in the all-purpose flour.

Slowly add the water, stirring to avoid lumps.

Put the batter aside for a day or more (up to three days) to allow it to ferment. You will know if the process is working because the batter will start to bubble. This process relies on airborne yeasts, so I usually put mine outside until the bubbles start to form (typically within a day). It helps if you live in the country. If it does not start fermenting you can add a teaspoon of fresh yeast.

Stir in the salt.

Heat a nonstick pan or lightly oiled cast-iron skillet until a water drop skitters across the surface.

Brush the pan with a thin layer of vegetable oil and pour in enough batter to form an even layer over the entire surface, thicker than a crepe but not as thick as a U.S. pancake. Swirl the pan to achieve this.

Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until holes appear on the surface of the bread. Once the surface is dry, remove the bread from the pan and let it cool. Repeat with the rest of the batter.

Do not brown the underside of the bread and do not flip it. It takes some experience to get this process right, and I also find that the process gets easier after I make the second and third injera. I use a cast iron skillet and it seems that as the cooking process continues the heat spreads more evenly and consistently across the pan. Often I eat the first one in the kitchen dipped in a little meat sauce!Beef Wat

Several properties distinguish wats from stews of other cultures. Perhaps the most obvious is an unusual cooking technique. The preparation of a wat begins with chopped onions slow cooked, without any fat or oil, in a dry skillet or pot until much of their moisture has been driven away. Fat (usually niter kibbeh, a kind of clarified butter) is then added, in quantities that might seem excessive by modern Western standards. The onions and other aromatics are sautéed before the addition of other ingredients. Indian ghee is a suitable substitute for niter kibbeh (as is clarified butter). This method causes the onions to break down and thicken the stew.

Put the onions in a dry heavy skillet. Cook over very low heat until they are lightly caramelized, the slower the better. Sometimes this takes me up to an hour.

Raise the heat to medium and add the garlic, berbere spice, tomato paste and sugar. Stir well, and cook until thick.

Add a little of the stock to make a paste. Then stirring constantly add the remaining liquid and the meat cubes. Season with salt to taste, and cook gently for 1 hour or longer until the meat is tender (so that it shreds easily) and the sauce is thickened and reduced. Shred the meat with two forks, and serve the wat on top of injera.

Mix all the spices and toast in a dry, hot pan, shaking to prevent scorching. Cool the mixture, then grind it into a powder. I use a coffee grinder which I reserve for spices. Save the leftover spice in a small glass bottle with a tight-fitting lid.

Author

My name is Juan Alejandro Forrest de Sloper. Daily I post an anniversary with a suitable recipe du jour. Although the anniversary material is often really prominent, try to remember that, first and foremost, this is a FOOD BLOG.

Please note that if you are more comfortable in a language other than English there is a Google translate app in this sidebar.

[Photo: Denise Yanko]

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